Lili Damita

Infobox Actor
name = Lili Damita


imagesize = 200px
caption = Lili Damita in 1934
birthname = Liliane Marie Madeleine Carré
birthdate = birth date|1904|7|10
birthplace = Blaye, Gironde, Aquitaine, France
deathdate = death date and age|1994|3|21|1904|7|10
deathplace = Palm Beach, Florida
spouse =Michael Curtiz (1925 -1926)
Errol Flynn (1935-1942)
Allen Loomis (1962-1983)

Lili Damita (July 10, 1904 – March 21, 1994) was a French film actress.

Early life and education

Born Liliane Marie-Madeleine Carré in Blaye, France, she was educated in convents and ballet schools in several European countries, including France, Spain and Portugal. At 14, she was enrolled as a dancer at the Opera de Paris.

By age 16 she was performing in popular music-halls, eventually appearing in the Revue at the Casino de Paris. She also worked as a photographic model. Offered a role in film as a prize for winning a magazine beauty competition in 1921, she appeared in several silent films before being offered her first leading role in "Das Spielzeug von Paris" (1925) by Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz. She was an instant success, and Curtiz directed her in two more films: "Fiaker Nr 13" (1926) and "Der Goldene Schmetterling" (1926). In the latter film, her acting was exceptionally good. Damita continued appearing in German productions directed by Robert Wiene ("Die Grosse Abenteuerin" (1927)), G. W. Pabst ("Man Spielt nicht mit der Liebe" (1926)), and British director Graham Cutts ("The Queen Was in the Parlour" (1927)).

Career

In 1928, at the invitation of Samuel Goldwyn she went to Hollywood, making her American debut in a film titled "The Rescue". Leased out to various studios, she appeared with stars such as Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant, and James Cagney. Her films included the boxoffice successes "The Cock-Eyed World" (1929), [amg title|id=1:87505|title=The Cock-Eyed World] the semi-silent "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (1929), and "This Is the Night" (1932).

Personal life

In 1935 she married her second husband, a virtual unknown who would become Hollywood's biggest box office attraction, Errol Flynn, with whom she had a son, Sean, born in 1941. Following the marriage, she had retired from the screen. The couple divorced in 1942. (Barbara Hershey portrayed her in the TV film "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" (1985) based on Errol Flynn's biography.) Damita eventually remarried (in 1962) to Allen Loomis, a Fort Dodge, Iowa dairy owner.

During the Vietnam Conflict, her son Sean Flynn was working as a freelance photo journalist under contract to Time Magazine when he and fellow journalist Dana Stone went missing on the road south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 6, 1970. Although Damita spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, he was never found and in 1984 was declared legally dead.

Lili Damita died of Alzheimer's disease in Palm Beach, Florida at the age of 89, and was interred in the Oakland Cemetery in Fort Dodge, Iowa, her third husband's hometown.

elected filmography

*"L'Empereur des Pauvres" (1921, serial)
*"Corsica" (1922)
*"La Voyante" (1923)
*"Das Spielzeug von Paris" (1925)
*"Fiaker Nr 13" 1926
*"Der Goldene Schmetterling" (1926)
*"Man Spielt nicht mit der Liebe" (1926)
*"The Queen Was in the Parlour" [aka "Forbidden Love"] (1927)
*"The Rescue" (1929)
*"The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (1929)
*"The Cock-Eyed World" (1929)
*"Fighting Caravans" (1930)
*"This Is the Night" (1932)
*"Une Heure pres de Toi" (1932, French-language version of "One Hour With You")
*"The Match King" (1932)
*"Goldie Gets Along" (1933)
*"Frisco Kid" (1935)

elected stage musicals

*"On Dit Ça" Paris 1923
*"Sons o'Guns" New York 1929/30
*"Here's How" London 1934

References

* [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:16745~T1 Lili Damita] at Allmovie
* [http://silentladies.com/BDamita.html Silent Ladies & Gents]
*Bermingham, Cedric Osmond. "Stars of the screen 1931: A volume of biographies of contemporary actors and actresses engaged in photoplay throughout the world". London: Herbert Joseph, 1931.

External links

*imdb|0198847
* [http://flynn.cernstharth.com Peter's E.F. Club - An internet scrapbook dedicated to Errol Flynn with extensive archival articles, books, photographs, filmography, biography, and much more including Lili Damita and son, Sean Flynn.]
*findagrave|6956547
* [http://silentladies.com/PDamita.html Photographs of Lili Damita]

Persondata
NAME= Damita, Lili
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Carré, Liliane Marie Madeleine
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= July 10, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH= Blaye, Gironde, Aquitaine, France
DATE OF DEATH= March 21, 1994
PLACE OF DEATH= Palm Beach, Florida